Case Number 18338

RAN (BLU-RAY)

The Charge

Chaos.

Opening Statement

Simply put, Ran is a masterpiece of cinema. Endless analysis and
dissertations, endless dissections and analysis of this magnum opus of a film,
have been written, including two excellent and in-depth reviews by our own Judge
Dan Mancini. Ran is elegant and chaotic, savage and sweeping in scope,
vivid and groundbreaking, and arguably the finest work from one of the most
acclaimed and celebrated directors of all time -- and there was almost a
Criterion edition on Blu-Ray.

Criterion released Ran: Criterion Collection, a superb
standard-definition presentation and fans clamored in anxious anticipation of a
Blu-Ray release. It was scheduled on the release calendar, but was pulled at the
last minute due to a rights issue. Those rights, it would seem, were lost for
good. Now we have Lionsgate and StudioCanal stepping up with Ran
(Blu-Ray). Can this humble release ever hope to satisfy a legion of neurotic
and freakish collectors demanding tiny little chronological numbers on the spine
of their titles?

Facts of the Case

The powerful Ichimonji clan is at a crossroads. Its leader, the elder
Hidetora (Tatsuya Nakadai, Yojimbo, Kagemusha) hopes to preserve his legacy by
dividing his kingdom among his three sons: Taro, Jiro, and Saburo. To his
dismay, his plans for unity soon unravel. His sons soon reveal their own
ambitions and desires for power and control of the clan. Brother will betray
brother in a complex and brutal battle for domination, while Hidetora is driven
mad as he watches his empire crumble, unable to turn back the wheels of
fate...

The Evidence

The last truly great film by legendary director Akira Kurosawa, Ran is
a thematic and personal achievement for the late Japanese auteur: a grandiose
and sweeping epic, the most expensive film ever made in Japan at the time, and a
personal bookend to a marvelous and influential career. Kurosawa made films
after, but none so monumental and influential. With elaborate and lush costume
designs, hundreds upon hundreds of extras, elaborate set pieces, and treacherous
on-location shoots on the slopes of Mt. Fuji, Ran is as notorious for its
numerous financial, technical, and artistic challenges as it is for its final
product.

With a theme similar to other films in the twilight of Kurosawa's career,
Ran is about the transition and loss of power, of legacies and lingering
regrets of lives lived, the gradual and inexorable turn of fate's wheels that
pits the aged against the young in an endless struggle for power. An aged and
feeble warlord, himself a man who took power in his youth through violence, now
desperate to control his legacy one final time and dole out power to his sons.
He fights against the currents of fate, of the natural order of the world, yet
only ends up precipitating the exact situation he hopes to avoid -- violence,
chaos, disorder, and destruction of his legacy.

The thematic adaptation and synthesis of two influential works, Ran
came into being through an analogy from Mori Motonari, a warlord and ruler
during the Sengoku period of Japan in the Sixteenth century who had three sons.
Each was handed an arrow and told to snap it, which they did so easily. However,
when the father produced three arrows and asked his sons to snap them together,
they could not -- a literal strength in unity. This historical allegory, which
makes its way into Ran's opening sequence, harmonizes surprisingly well
with the other work Kurosawa was fascinated with -- Shakespeare's King
Lear, another work about fathers and their children and metaphors about
power, control, and the cost of abandoning unity.

There is a harsh pessimism at work here in Ran, a brutal, relentless,
and nihilistic anger that festers, boils, and explodes with furious rage as the
film winds towards its inexorable conclusion. Lust, anger, and jealousy drive
all the characters mad, leading to almost complete annihilation of their beings,
both physical and spiritual. This is a film that revels in the worst elements of
human nature, the basest of instincts and irrational fears, of resentment both
real and imagined as the Ichimonji clan self-destructs and Hidetora watches all
he has strived to build and achieve in his long life burn into ash with mad,
half-crazed eyes.

Color is so dynamic and pervasive in Ran that it bears special
mention, as if a protagonist in of itself interacting with the characters.
Kurosawa came to color filmmaking rather late in his career, and in doing so,
approached it like an abstract painter approaches a blank canvas. Primary colors
literally explode in Ran, a staggeringly vibrant embodiment of dancing
flame and chaos. Indeed, were it not for the color, Kurosawa may never have made
the film -- during the numerous financing issues that plagued the production,
the lavishly colored storyboards became key elements used to sell the film to
foreign investors.

Trying to capture all the elements of Ran into a single DVD review
is, frankly, exhausting. The film is so epic and yet so intimate; a massive,
chaotic assault of war and violence and destruction counterbalanced with the
most intimate and personal of anxieties, fears, and lamentations. Again, I refer
audiences to Judge Dan Mancini's treatments of the film, for he delves into its
historic, literary, and conceptual depths deeper than I dare; they are marvelous
reads.

Now we come to the technical presentation, where this review finally
addresses the elephant in the room. The 1080p transfer is clean and sharp, with
closeups exhibiting excellent detail in skin texture and fabric variegation.
Colors are splendidly vibrant and saturated to the point of abnormal vibrancy,
with yellows, reds, and greens leaping off the screen, staggeringly vivid. By
any other standard, this is a very good treatment of Ran, but people will
hold this film to a staggeringly high standard. Unfortunately, the more you go
looking for flaws in the image, the more you find them. Contrast levels are
high, with white levels blown much brighter than feels natural, leading some
almost impossibly luminescent sequences. Edge enhancement is detectable
throughout the film, and the transfer is excessively grainy, not in a pleasing
film stock sort of way, but in a blocky, digital noise reduction filter kind of
way. This becomes distracting during indoor sequences where the image jumbles
and swirls like a swarm of mosquitoes. While this may be a disappointment to
many, remember that Ran has seen more than a half-dozen iterations on DVD
released since the inception of the format, and each one has varied dramatically
from the next; a sure sign of inconsistent source material elements if there
ever was one. It may not be perfect, but this is a good presentation, certainly
the best currently available. To borrow a boxing metaphor, Ran (Blu-Ray)
wins on technical knockout, but it exhibits enough quirkiness and undesirable
elements preventing it from a pure KO.

Audio fares better, thankfully, with a barrage of DTS-HD Master Audio
presentations and subtitles to suit practically the entire European continent.
We get full 5.1 treatments in Japanese and French, and both are magnificent
improvements over the standard definition DVD versions even to the most
untrained of listeners. The fidelity and clarity of the battle sequences is
marvelous to behold, and the lossless track make it that much more sumptuous,
with arrows whizzing, fire crackling, and armor clanking, all perfectly
realized. The score is emphasized beautifully, a powerful and rousing theme.
Bass response is less than marvelous, with a lack of deep low end, and rear
channels don't quite get as much action as one might hope, but not unexpected
considering the film was never shot this way. For the purists, the 2.0 version
offers up a very similar experience, minus the extra (and some would argue
artificial) channels, with no noticeable differences in quality. For other
languages options, we get Spanish, German, and Italian dubs. For the
foreign-language speaking crowd, take your pick between Spanish, German,
Italian, French, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish subtitles.

In terms of extras, we see a lot of material here that should be familiar to
the Criterion clan -- but also some notable absences. The superb feature-length
documentary A.K. by Chris Marker is included. It's a must-see viewing
experience, offering up a surprisingly introspective and intimate interpretation
of Akira Kurosawa on-set and his astonishing devotion to his craft. We get a
40-minute documentary, "Akira Kurosawa: The Epic and the Intimate"
interviewing cast and crew about the production and funding of Ran;
"Art of the Samurai: Interview with a Japanese Art-of-War Expert," a
40-minute feature discussing historic Japanese military, weapons and armor; and
"The Samurai," a 50-minute feature on the historical and cultural
importance of the samurai. A trailer and a twenty-page essay booklet by David
Jenkins are also included.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

The worst part about Ran (Blu-Ray) is that, no matter how many times
you look at it, hold it in your hands, put it on your DVD shelf, rearrange its
position or squint at it from a distance, it stubbornly and obstinately refuses
to transform itself into a Criterion Collection title. Everyone wishes Criterion
could have kept the rights to this film, but alas, they did not, and all the
willing in the world will not make it so. Griping about it at this point simply
cannot change the reality of the situation.

Will people become entrenched in their apathetic dislike of this title of
sheer dogged single-minded stubbornness, bemoaning its very existence? Will
people be convinced that had this shiny little disc been released by Criterion,
it would somehow be "better" or "superior" in some
measurable fashion? Judging by the legion of one-star reviews on Amazon (before
it even streets), these fears do appear to be unfortunately apt.

Who is to say? Why even stress about this kind of thing? Lest we forget,
Ran is available on Blu-Ray, and that is a Good Thing, full stop. If you
ask me, this kind of speculation acts as an invisible line of sorts, separating
the men from the boys -- or perhaps more accurately, the film lovers from the
obsessive and neurotic collectors.

Closing Statement

Ran is an undeniable cinematic masterpiece, and under any other
criteria, judging the quality of a Blu-Ray release, Ran: Blu-Ray could be
considered a fine and upstanding release. Unfortunately, the lingering shadow of
a once-promised Criterion Blu-Ray edition will forever haunt this title,
taunting audiences from beyond the grave of a magical, perfect HD release that
may simply never be.

The final verdict ultimately boils down to how obsessive a collector you
are. In terms of supplements, Ran: Criterion Collection is still the
reigning champion in the extra features department, with commentary tracks and
interviews not available in any other edition. Serious fans may not want to part
with these supplements.

If what you yearn for is the most technical and superior treatment of this
film for your collection, the choice is obvious, if a bit painful. Ran:
Blu-Ray is the best-looking edition of this film currently available to
purchase. It should come as no surprise that a Blu-Ray topples a
standard-definition release (even a Criterion) in the technical specs
department, but the margin of victory here is embarrassingly slim -- hardly the
knockout punch fans were clamoring for.

You can shake your fist at the cruel injustices in the world that rob
collectors of a Criterion edition, but Ran: Blu-Ray is still worthy of a
place in your collection, if only to honor the amazing film itself and to
appreciate its splendor in full high definition. It may not be a full-blown
replacement for Ran: Criterion Collection, but if there was ever a film
worthy of a double-dip, Ran just might be it.